Mark Valladares is a Lib Dem parish councillor in Suffolk. He’s been writing recently about proposals to abolish the district councils there. This would mean there would just be one big council for the whole of Suffolk, plus all the parish councils.
On reflection , he thinks it might be for the best (though that isn’t particularly the view of us at onlineFOCUS – up till now we’ve taken the view that we benefit from being part of a small district council)
One of the comments on his blog says
Ah : but there’s a General Election in the meantime and you may well find an incoming Government more reluctant to hack off the Tory shirearchy than Labour.
Perhaps we now need to campaign for parishes to have more say over local issues (like licensing?)
But if this does go ahead , and if the next government treats local government in the same way , will the Essex district councils be next for the chop? Will we renaming this website ” onlineFOCUS – News and Stuff for Rochford Hundred” ?
Interesting concepts and comments! Any ideas on Essex’s position?
I think we currently have 4 levels of ‘local’ government i.e. Parish, District, County, Regional. That is a lot and an awlful lot of costs. So how many should we have and at what level?
The article suggests that RDC benefits from being a “small council”. That may well be debatabe given the diseconomies of scale and lack of ‘muscle’.
Historically, the people of Rochford have resisted change, mainly due to well founded concerns that a merger with Southend would mean our neighbour dumping its housing problems on us. But is this a valid reason for resisting change?
The recent Core Strategy process has demonstrated that the ‘senior’ administration(s)simply allocate additional housing on the lower tiers, so we could well finish up with extra housing anyway through the allocation process. Conversely, nearly every Parish Council objected to their housing allocation but were over-ruled, demonstrating their lack of muscle.
Four layers seems too many to me. It would be helpful to have a constructive debate on how many, and which, there should be. I guess the answer could depend on what powers are allocated to which residual body!
Nobody’s looking at Essex yet.
Yes, we have four tiers, if you include regional, but the Regional assembly is being abolished.
Up till now I’ve always thought that the various towns and villages benefited from being in a small district – how mch representation would say, Hockley, get in a bigger authority. And I like having ALL 39 members of the council dealing with planning applications.
The advent of the cabinet system, the scant numbers of district councillors under 50, the recent insensitivity re Hockley Town Centre and the District Council’s bulldozing attitude towards Rawreth has dented that belief somewhat… but I still believe that local democracy works best the way things are now.
As for the financial aspects, I don’t believe the savings are that great. You can prepare figures that suit whatever case you want to make…
Chris, just to prove your point on planning, the article below is from today’s Echo. However, combining councils doesn’t mean we can’t pick the best bits of each system!
Call for all councillors to debate Southend Airport expansion is thwarted
10:50am Tuesday 15th December 2009
A VOTE on the airport expansion will be taken by the 17 members of the borough council’s planning committee, not the full council.
Lib Dem and Labour councillors had pushed for all 51 councillors to be given a vote on the plans.
A full council meeting on Thursday, voted down the opposition proposals to widen the vote.
Lib Dem leader Graham Longley (Blenheim Park) had argued the issue was of such significance for the town, the normal procedure should be changed so all councillors could decide.
He argued: “It would restore democracy to the town, by giving council the right to make the final decision.
“Southend members can represent residents and express their views. It’s about involving people and not leaving such a major decision to as few as nine members, which would represent a majority on the development control committee.”
However, Tory council leader, Nigel Holdcroft (West Leigh) branded the opposition move as “a cheap political stunt, simply designed to play on residents’ concerns”.
Mr Holdcroft pointed out members of the development control committee had special training to allow them to make informed decisions on planning issues
The way Rochford District Council is going, it will be absorbed into a bigger authority. There are many residents unhappy with our current authority and the way it is run. The ruling council will only have themselves to blame when the time comes, and it will, to stand down ‘for the good of the party’ and a bigger and all encompassing authority comes along. I rue the day this happens but I saw this happening years ago. No Government would make such a change to a local authority if it had the support of the public. This District authority does not have such support, easy decision.